In this week’s episode of The Magicians, we get a magical Ocean’s 11 style bank heist with Margo playing Danny Ocean. Naturally though, things don’t go quite as planned and we get time manipulation, battle magic, and grave injuries in the process.
Julia and Kady head to a butcher shop where they meet two Korean magicians who examine the pregnant Hedge Witch and then explode into and argument with each other. One woman angrily storms off while the other explains that Julia needs an exorcism, not an abortion because the thing growing in her is not human. Oh and it’s going to cost $1 million dollars. WOW. To make matters worse, the demigod is also tangling itself more and more with Julia’s soul and so the longer she waits, the harder it will be to remove it from her without significant damage.
She jokingly tells Kady that maybe they should just rob a bank because hitting up pawnshops for gold necklaces would just take too long. Except when they case a bank connected to the Federal Reserve (they need gold bars to make the payment), it just happens to be heavily warded with magic. That’s when an invisible creature attacks and Julia is nearly choked to death if not for the Haxenpaxen who gets the thing off her but sadly loses its life in the process. RIP smelly dude.
Kady then suggests that they go to the only place safe where Reynard and this new threat won’t be able to find her, Brakebills. Amazingly, Dean Fogg allows both women sanctuary at the school when he refused to do so for Marina. The dean explains to Professor Lipson that he’s making an exception because of his history with Julia. Lipson confirms the assessment of the Korean magicians that Julia is basically screwed and needs an exorcism. She compares it to Bella’s pregnancy with Renesmee on Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, which is to say that its going to sap her life force and leave her a near desiccated corpse.
The two women head to the Physical Kids cabin (Kady was a Physical Kid) and they run into Q there who is still trying to figure out how to undo being a niffin and to bring the real Alice back. He and niffin Alice eventually come to mild truce as he explains that her only options are to either let him try and figure out how to bring the real her back or be boxed up forever. She doesn’t like it, but she temporarily stops harassing him. Kady fills him in on how Julia is pregnant and Q goes to see her (she’s in Alice’s room because of the lack of space). They have their own truce of sorts where Quentin admits that while he is pissed that she didn’t trust him (indirectly resulting in Alice’s death), he also still cares about her and knows how screwed up her situation is. Out of options, Jules asks for his help to rob a bank.
Meanwhile in Fillory, Margo and Eliot discover that the kingdom is broke AF and they can’t fund a war and restore the Wellspring at the same time. So they take a break and head back to Brakebills where they encounter Q at the cabin. Q fills them in on what’s going on and asks them about joining the bank heist as well. Naturally Brakebills’ biggest troublemakers are in and to no surprise, Margo is the only one that’s robbed a bank between all of them. Their interests are temporarily aligned with that of Julia, whom they still despise yet also sympathize with since it’s the modern age and any woman should be able to get an abortion.
Lastly, Kady stumbles on Penny in the library and its super awkward at first, but then the two run into each other’s arms and start making out like cats in heat. After their passionate session, the traveller asks what she’s really up to and Kady confesses that she and Julia need to rob a bank. At first Penny is upset that Jules is here but his ladylove explains that she owes it to the hedge witch. Then he inquires on when she’s going to ask for his help. Awww shucks, he just can’t stay mad at her and really wants in on this.
So with the squad assembled once more, they head to the bank where Margo informs them that corporations controlled by magicians own most of these establishments. There are the standard security measures employed for regular folk and then magical ones like the anti-traveller sigil inside the bank vault floor and a battle magician on call in case the alarm systems are triggered.
Their first step is to get the finger prints of two of the bank managers, which is up to Q and Kady. Because they have magic, instead of just getting a lift of the print, they are able to enchant one of their fingers to actually be a physical copy of the finger of the two bankers. Next their move is to get all of the customers out of the bank and they accomplish that by releasing bees into the ventilation system and pose as exterminators there to wrangle in the insects. After Kady and Q switch the alarms off, Penny travels inside the vault while wearing a levitation belt so that he doesn’t touch the floor. But as he is putting in the gold bars into his bag, he doesn’t notice that one of his shoes have touched the floor until its too late.
Luckily though he is able to contact Eliot since the real El is asleep in Fillory and his consciousness is floating between both in his actual body and his golem one. Penny explains his situation and so Q, Kady, and El head back into the bank to get him out. Another complication arises when two security guards (who had missed the evacuation because they were having sex in another room) are still downstairs by the vault. The High King comes to the rescue with a spelled mini disco ball that enchants anyone who can hear its music into a choreographed dance sequence out of the room. Their next problem is figuring out the vault code. That’s where niffin Alice comes in and offers Q her help for a price. She wants 1 hour a day of getting control of his body for her own malicious purposes. He counters with 30 minutes a day and with a word of bond contract. Niffin Alice agrees and she quickly writes out the spell that only Q can see and they are able to get in. But of course something else had to happen and Quentin trips another alarm as he steps outside the vault, this time alerting the battle magician.
Julia in the meantime has been watching the events unfold at Brakebills through the best friends charm she has with Kady. She rushes to Margo with her time rewind machine that goes back 15 seconds, however they only get four chances at it. They all end up dying in the first three tries, but on their last go the battle magician is at a different spot and mortally wounds golem Eliot. Kady then charges the older woman and knocks her out with a punch. Sometimes not using magic is just as effective.
Outside Julia and Margo have been attacked by goblins (sent by one of the Korean magicians) but Kady and the rest of the squad arrive in time. She’s able to kill it using the battle magician’s fancy electric whip. They take Jules to get her baby exorcised and it works, but with an ominous complication.
This week’s episode has multiple storylines converging and it’s nice to everyone together again to do something as crazy as robbing a bank. The Magicians continues to surprise audiences in the best way possible while maintaining it’s dark humor amidst complex scenarios.
The Magicians is on Syfy Wednesdays at 9/8 central.
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